Halle Bailey's Journey to Becoming Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" | Glamour

I'm Halle Bailey and this is my journey to Ariel [Music] I was I was about five years old when I first watched The Little Mermaid a lot of people will be shocked to know that my favorite Disney princess growing up it was Ariel no lie I really think she had a lot to do with the fact that I wanted to learn how to swim and be in the water all the time so when my sister and I and my brother we would be in the pool we would just pretend to be mermaids yeah it was the best thing ever I actually auditioned for this role when I was 18 years old and I'm turning 23 this year and it's now coming out so it was a wild Journey for me but I was really excited to kind of share this journey with Ariel I was breaking barriers along with her when her character was breaking barriers and I remember being in the harness and the air and swinging around all day as well as like being in the tank and the water for hours at a time and I truly felt like I was breaking out of my shell that I had been in for so long Ariel is so fiery and passionate about what she wants for herself and her future and I truly felt like you know she's telling me you can do it I truly was in the best shape of my life when I was filming like two years ago of course now I'm home and it's different but when you wake up and you have people to help you all the time I mean the training it was like cardio stamina I had to do a lot of core work I would be on the harness and then swimming it was just a lot like when you're doing that a lot every day you get really strong a basic day on set would be like 4 a.m I would wake up I ended up living by the Thames like a river in London which was really beautiful but Pinewood where we were shooting at was like an hour and a half commute so I'd have to wake up like super earlier earlier than my call time just to get there so then when I would get there I think by like 5 30 I would go in the gym I would do work with this beautiful personal trainer named Solana who I love who's like my sister because she's with me every day at 5am and we would do that and then from there I would go to stunts from like seven to nine and then after stunts I would go into hair and makeup and you know they would have a few hours I think like two hours and then finally after that it'd be like okay we're ready for you on set and then I would go and I'd spend all day on set but if I was working on like a blue screen day I would have to put on all of my gear like my padding and everything my harness and then they would just hoist me up in the air and I'd just be swinging and swimming in the air the first two months of filming were really hilarious to me because every day I would go on set but I would have to act with nothing in front of me I would be talking to these amazing puppeteers they would kind of tease me and allow me to act with like these puppets and then when we'd shoot they'd be like okay Hallie and they'd take them away so then I'm left with like the air to just talk to so I have to look at you I have to act like we're having a conversation right now but there's nobody here right so it's really a really funny thing to too and I felt crazy a lot of the time it was just a really funny experience but from there then it would be the end of the day I would be there all day and then I'd go home and go to sleep and do it again the next day Ariel's Glam for me was something that was really an exciting and fresh moment for me to go through because I have the original version of her in my head and I was like always wondering like what will they do but the fact that Rob really wanted to Champion me and my natural hair and keeping it was something that was really exciting for me because I had multiple looks I was so excited about my tail look about my underwater look because I was like what will I look like as a mermaid and Colleen Atwood the head costume designer she's amazing I mean she's like Oscar winning just a legend and she was dressing me in all these beautiful things and I'm like whoa what is going on what was funny when I was on set is that half the time when I was doing blue screen work I would wear like a uniform so I would go into work every day with like a cap on and like dots all over my face and my body so that they could track you know my movements and of course just cut me in half and transfer my the top half of my body onto a tail in the end with the CGI and I can tell you about the four new original songs and that they are beautiful number one the original ones already have my heart I don't know where where I don't know how but the fact that I got to be in the room with Alan and Lynn when they were creating these new Beautiful Moments for us it was really special I truly feel like we deserve that kind of evolution with these songs these new songs really really help us with that our version is a new version and it mirrors our modern world it's not just about her falling in love and which is wonderful which is great but it's also about her need and wants for herself and her future and her passions working with Javier Bardem was a dream come true first of all I was a huge fan of his like we all are and so going into filming and to meeting him into rehearsals I immediately thought I was gonna meet like this tough guy like I thought he was going to be very stoic I met him and he's like the sweetest teddy bear man you've ever met like the kindest sweetest soul and I just had a great time with him and bonded with him the whole time throughout filming and I truly felt like he was my dad on set and he's just an angel he's literally the kindest human being you can ever meet I have so many fun stories working with Melissa first of all she's just a hilarious human being and I love her so much but the fact that she is taking on Ursula was really exciting to watch she's a Powerhouse that's what I live for I remember when we were filming Poor Unfortunate Souls I think it took like two days to do that whole sequence and it was so much fun just to watch her and all her glory and it's funny because the dancers each dancer was one of her octopus legs so she had like eight dancers around her like stacking up and like mirroring her it was just really cool to watch Jonah was an amazing Prince Eric he was so great I was just so happy to have somebody like on set with me we were both like going through the ringer in the water in the air it was a lot for the both of us and we just bonded over the fact that we were like wow this is really big I absolutely think this is a full circle moment for me to be able to combine you know my love of acting and singing It's a dream really to do the two things that you love and do it to fulfill a beautiful remake of this movie that you loved since you were younger it's like almost healing to the inner child and me I think that everyone can look forward to new music from me soon very soon I have been like working quietly on it for a while ever since I got home from filming mermaid of course you know I definitely think it's a bit of a different sound than people are used to hearing from me with my sister I am very influenced by Jazz Melodies and you know rock and soul and so it's a mixture but I cannot wait for people to finally be able to hear my perspective of things thank you so much glamor for joining me thanks for listening to my stories bye [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Glamour

Views: 297,401

Keywords: ariel, beyonce, chloe x halle, disney, glamour, glamour magazine, halle bailey, halle bailey ariel, halle bailey beyonce, halle bailey the little mermaid, halley bailey interview, halley bailey little mermaid, movies, the little mermaid, the little mermaid cast, the little mermaid interview

Id: YH2Ai8xl9DY

Length: 8min 7sec (487 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2023